Data storage devices are used to access digital data in a fast and efficient manner. At a host level, user data are often structured in terms of variable length files, which can be constituted from one or more fixed-sized logical blocks (such as logical block addresses (LBAs)).
To store or retrieve user data with an associated data storage device, host commands are generally issued to the device using a logical block convention. The device links LBAs associated with host write commands to physical locations or blocks of media on which the data are to be stored. The device may also utilize LBAs to locate physical blocks from which the data are to be retrieved.
When the data storage device is characterized as a disc drive, a controller may be used to execute a seek command to move a data transducer or head adjacent a rotating recording disc and carry out the data transfer (i.e., read/write) operation with the associated physical block(s). Other types of data storage devices (for example, solid state data storage devices that have no moving parts) generally carry out other types of access operations to transfer the associated data.
Disc drives, for example, may encounter a read error during an attempt to read data from a location of the recording disc. Read errors may occur, for example, due to poor head placement during read operations, adjacent track interference/noise during read operations, poorly written data in the location of interest, foreign matter on the disc surface, a damaged or degraded region of the disc or the like. Upon detecting the read error, the disc drive may implement some sort of data and location repair procedure. Current repair procedures that target individual storage locations with defective data may be more suitable for disc drives that employ conventional recording techniques (for example, utilize non-overlapping tracks and permit sector/location-level random data updates) than for drives that utilize, for example, bands of partially overlapping tracks where individual locations of a band may not be randomly updated. Thus, there is a need for improvements in data error handling/management procedures. It is to these and other improvements that the present embodiments are generally directed.